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Wave of children across US-Mexican border 'urgent humanitarian situation'

Katie Zezima

Floridalma Bineda Portillo, of Guatemala, and her sons wait at a bus terminal in Phoenix, Arizona. They were among 400 women and children caught crossing from Mexico into south Texas last month. After being flown to Arizona when border officials ran out of space to house them, they were dropped at bus stations. Photo: AP

Washington: US President Barack Obama on Monday declared a wave of unaccompanied children across the US-Mexican border an "urgent humanitarian situation" and directed federal agencies to coordinate a response to provide housing and other services.

Officials said the response - which is being led by Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate - will provide the children with medical treatment, food and mental health services.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, 24,668 unaccompanied minors were apprehended at the US-Mexican border in the fiscal year 2013. Officials expect the annual number will jump to nearly 60,000 by the end of fiscal 2014.

"The children that are arriving are a particularly vulnerable group," Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said on a conference call. "They have often survived a hazardous journey to have arrived here."

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Officials said most of the children are from Mexico and Central America, and are fleeing violence and poor economies in their countries or are seeking to be reunited with family members in the United States. They are often brought to the border by smugglers known as coyotes.

Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House domestic policy council, also said there are rumours and suggestions that the increase may be in response to false gossip that children are allowed to stay in the United States despite immigration law or that immigration reform may benefit minors. Ms Munoz said the United States is working closely with the governments of Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador to distribute public service announcements.

More than 1000 minors are being housed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Officials will fly other children to a base in Ventura County, California, that can house up to 600 and probably will open later this week. Lackland opened its doors to the children last month.

Mr Obama's announcement comes after White House budget officials informed legislators on Friday that the projected cost of caring for and resettling young migrants from Mexico and Central America could top $US2.28 billion in fiscal 2015 - more than double what the Office of Management and Budget requested for 2015 a few months ago.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican, called the influx of unaccompanied children "an administration-made disaster".

"Word has gotten out around the world about President Obama's lax immigration enforcement policies and it has encouraged more individuals to come to the United States illegally," Mr Goodlatte said. He added that "enforcement at the border and in the interior of the US" and "not another bureaucratic task force" would better solve the influx of children.